James Pethokoukis, in the course of a post that criticizes John McCain’s economic ideas, had a little bit to say about the pro-family tax reform that I have been promoting.

National Review writer Ramesh Ponnuru is another advocate of this new domestic agenda, noting that since many Americans pay no income tax once they take advantage of various credits and deductions—more than a third of tax return filers vs. fewer than a fifth when Ronald Reagan took office in 1981—tax cuts have waning political oomph. Ponnuru would instead like to see a dramatically bigger child tax credit to relieve the financial stress on families.

I plead guilty to the charge of believing that conservatives need to adapt their domestic agenda to the circumstances of the present. But the expansion of the child credit that I favor would be a tax cut, and a larger tax cut, for more people, than most of the tax cuts Republicans have been talking about. Moreover, it is tied to a larger reform that cuts marginal tax rates, lowers taxes on investment, and abolishes the AMT.

Incidentally, I think Pethokoukis is correct in his critique of McCain.